A Red Rose
by YukiGirl21
Summary: (A Valentine's Day Fic-But No Romance!) A girl wants to buy some flowers for her mother, but her money gets carried away by the wind. It lands in front of a VERY tall stranger...who wears a dark trench coat and fedora, who has a thing for red roses. The girl engages a conversation with this weird man...who is he? /One-shot/


A young girl walks through the slushy sidewalks of a rural area. Everywhere, she sees couples holding hands, men holding flowers or heart shaped balloons, or just people making out. Ick! the girl thinks to herself, making a face.

As she was walking, she sees a flower shop ahead. She looks over the flowers, awed by their beauty. There were Valentine Day like flowers from roses to carnations. The girl then stops in her tracks, remembering her mother. This was her chance to buy a gift for her! Fumbling for her wallet, the girl fishes out all the money she could find.

In the end, she only counted five dollars. Gazing over to the colorful flowers, she surveys the prices with her eyes nearly popping out of the girl's head. A dozen of roses for $30?! A combination of flowers for $15?! Madness! Complete and utter madness, is this highway robbery?! The girl thought to herself in shock of the prices, her mouth agape.

She then glances inside the window of the flower shop, seeing a very long line. Mostly consisting of men buying last minute Valentine gifts for their partners. Even if she did have enough money, it would take forever to wait.

Sighing, defeated, the girl turns away from the flower shop, and starts walking away. Suddenly, a huge gust of wind blows into the young girl's direction. "Aah!" she yelps, her hand releasing the handful of money by accident. "Oh! Dang it!"

The money then lands a few feet away from the girl, right in front of a very tall man wearing a dark trenchcoat. He picks it up, with the girl running blindly after it. She stops, breathlessly in stop of the tall man, her eyes on her money. She then glances up, seeing that the man being called "tall" was an understatement. He was a staggering 8 feet, towering over the short girl.

The mystery man's face, was covered with a fedora, only a grin shown under the shadow of his hat. Privately the girl thought to herself that they were oddly pointy and sharp for some reason…

"This yours?" the man asks gruffly, a New York accent hinted in his voice. He holds out the money to the girl.

The girl nods mutely in reply, and stares impatiently at the green wad in the man's hand. Weirdly enough, they looked long and spindly, a pale white shade of color for skin…

"Hm. Who's the lucky lad?" the fedora man asked, taking a box of cigarettes out of his pocket and lighting them. Jutting out of his pocket was a red rose. It looked beautiful, in full bloom, practically glowing from its redness. The man, however, shoves it back in his pocket.

The kid sighed. Why won't this man give back her money already? And why is he trying to talk to her? Doesnt he realized that it was creepy?

Taking a deep breath, the girl's chest puffs out. "My mom said that I wasn't allowed to talk to strangers," she declares boldly to fedora man. "It's very dangerous."

The stranger smiled in amusement, revealing rows and rows of very sharp teeth to the child. She gives out a small gasp of fear, seeing the glinting teeth. The man quickly reacts by closing his mouth, and continues to make small talk to the girl. "Well, if it's so dangerous, why you talking to me kid?" he asks smartly, a cigarette in his mouth.

The girl coughs, smelling the smoke. She puts her hands on her hips. "You're being a real creepy right now mister. Just give me the money-or I'll scream." she threatens, looking up to the tall man with nerve glinting in her eyes.

Fedora man gives out a dark chuckle. "Alright kid, I'll cut ya loose. But just answer my question: Who's your Valentine?"

She cocks her head in curiosity. Why would such a stranger ask a personal question? Well, if it is to leave her alone and give back the money so be it…the girl clenches her hands. "You better not be a weird stalker guy that's trying to kidnap me." she warns to the man.

He scoffs as a reply. "Seriously? Do ya think I'm interested in taking such a small fry like ya? Hell, I like my women to be older," Fedora man says. He flashes a seductive smile at a blonde woman in her twenty's passing by the two, on cue.

The girl huffs, disgusted. "You're seriously weird man! Do you want me to answer your question of not?!"

"Oh yeah that," the stranger says, as if her just remembered. He puffs out a cloud of smoke. "Spill the beans shrimp."

The girl glares at the tall man in agitation. Crossing her arms, she answered, "I'm trying to buy a Valentine's gift for my mom. There. Happy?" She extends her arm out, palm wide open. "Now give back my money like you promised." the girl says in expectation.

Fedora man gave a wide, Cheshire grin, once again displaying his jagged teeth. The girl was not afraid or shocked this time, but got the feeling that this "man" was not what he seemed…

"Alright kid. Here ya go. Like promised." The man handed back the girl the money, just as he said.

She gives a sigh of relief of exasperation. "Finally! Thought you'd never give it back…" Glancing down, she sees instead of 5 dollars in her hand, there were three scrunched up twenty dollar bills. The girl's jaw drops in complete and utter surprise. Her head snaps up, and sees that the tall man was swiftly walking away.

"Wait!" she calls out to him.

The Fedora man stops in his tracks, a few feet away from the girl. "What is it shrimp? I ain't got all day." Though his back was facing the girl, she could hear a smile in the tone of his voice.

"Err...You gave me extra-"

"Keep it kid. Geez, what kind of shrimp are ya, turning down free money. Go buy some flowers for your mom. I don't see a lot of shrimps like you trying to buy things for their folks." the man grunts in begrudging respect.

"Uhm, thanks? But-what's your name?" the girl questions in curiousity.

Fedora man cocked his head, as if thinking about it. "Go search up "Offenderman" up the internet. How about you find a looksie for yourself kid?" With that said, he walks away and goes out of the girl's sight in a blink of an eye. But, as mysterious as it could get, a red rose is left right where Fedora man was standing.

The girl hurries over to the rose, and picks it up, with a perplexed and awed expression.

Mystified, the girl walks into the flower shop, and buys a nice bouquet of carnations and flowers, along with a card for her mother. In the center of the bouquet was the red rose that the man left behind.

The girl arrives home, presenting her mom with the gift she bought. She was showered with scolds from her mother of how she shouldn't stay out so late, then with loving praises and kisses. The girl's mom then questions how did she had the money to buy these gifts.

The girl only shrugged in reply, and goes into her room. Her mind was itching with curiosity about what Fedora Man said to search up. Opening the computer, she searches up, "Offenderman." A bunch of results pop up. The girl goes through some stories about him.

Some of them were just plain silly and dirty (since one of them came from this site called "Trollpasta") and others were slightly confusing. It seemed that Offenderman was some kind of supernatural being to this other being called "Slenderman" (the girl heard of Slenderman before, but that didn't put much interest for her), and often goes around seducting woman handing out red roses...and kills them sometime.

The girl sits back, processing the information. That explains the red roses and Fedora Man's-Offenderman's, offputting behavior. But...why would Offenderman take time in talking to a "shrimp" such as her? The girl then goes to images. One image bears a haunting rescemblance to the man she saw not too long ago.

In the picture was a tall man wearing a dark trenchcoat and fedora. The fedora covers the man's pale white face, only showing a wide sharp toothed grin. In his long, bony fingers, the man hold a red rose.

That's the man I saw around the flowershop! The girl gazes at the screen. "I guess I came face to face with Offenderman," she says aloud. "Happy Valentine's day to you, I guess, Offenderman." the girl says.

Outside of her window, a tall figure stands near the lamp post, leaning against it. The figure smiles revealing sharp daggers in satisfaction. It tips its fedora, then disappears into the shadows.


End file.
